Rukmini Maria Callimachi

Rukmini Callimachi
Born	25 June 1973 Bucharest, Romania
Education	Dartmouth College Exeter College, Oxford
Occupation	Journalist

Rukmini Maria Callimachi (born 25 June 1973)^[1] is a Romanian-American journalist.

Life

She left Romania during the communist regime with her mother and grandmother, for Switzerland and then the United States, where she attended The Thacher School in Ojai, California. She graduated from Dartmouth College, and from Exeter College, Oxford, with a masters in linguistics. In 2000, she co-led the Royal Geographical Society's expedition to Tibet. She got her name "Rukmini" through her family's closeness to the Indian theosophist Rukmini Devi Arundale, founder of Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai, India.^[2]

Career

She began as a freelancer in New Delhi, India including for Time magazine, then joined the Associated Press in Portland, Oregon, in 2003. After a year in New Orleans documenting the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, she began reporting out of Dakar, Senegal, as a West African correspondent for The AP in late 2006.^[3] In 2014, she was hired by The New York Times.^[4] Her reporting focuses on Islamic extremism.^[5]

Callimachi began her writing career by writing poetry and was published in The American Scholar, Oxford Poetry,^[6] and Black Warrior Review,^[7] but realized it was "a totally dead-end street as a career."^[8] She has said, in an interview with Slate in 2016, that she shifted her focus from poetry to journalism and prose writing.^{[Note 1]}

Awards

• 2016 Aurora Prize for Integrity in Journalism.^[9]
• 2014 Michael Kelly Award and finalist in 2009^[10] and 2012^[11]
• 2011 Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award from Ball State University for her article, "Haiti-Hotel Montana".^[12]
• 2009 Pulitzer Prize Finalist "for her in-depth investigation of the exploitation of impoverished children in West and Central Africa"^[13]
• 2007 Sidney Hillman Foundation Award, “Coverage of Hurricane Katrina aftermath,” The Associated Press^[14]
• 2004 John M. Templeton Religion Story of the Year award, The Daily Herald (Ill.), "Passage from India" ^[15]
• 1998 Keats-Shelley Prize for Poetry

Works

• "Gabon casts first votes after dictator's death". Associated Press. 30 August 2009.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (9 August 2009). "Opium addictions grip families in Afghanistan's remote villages". The Boston Globe.
• "Afghan women candidates campaign in burqas". The Taiwan News. 30 July 2009.
• "Ruler with 45 homes among world's most corrupt". The Taiwan News. 22 June 2009.
• "'Gabon weeps' for strongman despite lost riches". FreeLibrary. 20 June 2009.
• "Somali pirates held after attack off the Seychelles". The Scotsman. 29 April 2009.
• When the lights go out, students take off to airport. The Guardian. London. 21 July 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (15 May 2005). "Mt. St. Helens' Victims Remembered". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (26 November 2004). "Adidas Feeling Pressure From Nike on Home Turf". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (23 August 2004). "Banks Look to Cash In by Providing Personal Touches". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (18 August 2004). "All the Comforts of Home". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (10 May 2004). "Bioengineered Grass Is Cause for Growing Concern". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
• Tim McGirk (29 January 2001). "Tremor Mortis". Time.
• Callimachi, Rukmini (27 June 2015). "ISIS and the Lonely Young American". The New York Times.

Poetry

• "The Anatomy of Wildflowers", Keats Shelley

Notes

1. My formation as a writer was as a poet. I tried very early on to be a poet and I published about a dozen poems in America and in American journals before I realized that this was a totally dead-end street as a career. ... I almost completely stopped writing poetry when I started writing prose. Annoyingly, my Wikipedia page also identifies me as a poet. I have no idea how one goes about changing those things.^[8]

References

1. Mihaiescu, Marlus. "Rukmini Callimachi - jurnalista americana de origine romana - nominalizata la premiile Pulitzer". HotNews.ro. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
2. "Rukmini Callimachi-Rukmini Arundale". Retrieved 10 January 2015.
3. Pascariu, Roxana. "Rukmini Callimachi: Pulitzer Finalist 2009". The Romanian Office. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
4. Calderone, Michael (27 February 2014). "AP's Rukmini Callimachi Joins The New York Times". Huffington Post. Retrieved 26 October 2014.
5. https://twitter.com/rcallimachi
6. Callimachi, Ruckmini. "Oxford Poetry Vol X No 3: Rus et Urbs (Summer 1999)". webpage. demon.co.uk. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
7. "Index of Authors". webpage. Black Warrior Review. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
8. Chotnier, Isaac. "The ISIS Correspondent". Slate. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
9. "Aurora Prize: The New York Times reporter receives Integrity in Journalism Award". News.am. April 24, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2016.
10. "Finalist: Rukmini Maria Callimachi". Archived from the original on 20 April 2009. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
11. "Rukmini Callimachi". Archived from the original on 2 December 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
12. "Eugene S. Pulliam National Journalism Writing Award". Ball State University. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
13. "Pulitzer Prize Finalists 2009". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
14. "Sidney Hillman Foundation Awards —". Infoplease.com. 2 April 2007. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
15. "Previous RNA Contest Winners". Rna.org. 4 February 2013. Retrieved 30 August 2009.

External links

• Rukmini Maria Callimachi on Twitter
  
• "RUKMINI CALLIMACHI", Free Library
• "RUKMINI CALLIMACHI", Newsvine
• Interview, Longform Podcast #129